Architectural detail from the central bow of the garden façade: Atlas and
Caryatids.

Orangerie

One of the two segmented colonnades enclosing the cour d'honneur on the
northern side of the palace.

The south facing garden façade. Frederick the Great ignored his architect's
advice to place the piano nobile upon a low ground floor. As a result, the
palace failed to take maximum advantage of its location. Its windows are
devoid of views, and seen from its lower terraces it appears to be more of
an orangery than a palace.

Nikolaikirche (Potsdam)

Sanssouci

Sanssouci is the former summer palace of Frederick the Great,
King of Prussia at Potsdam, just outside Berlin. It is often counted
among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more
intimate Rococo style and is far smaller than its French Baroque
counterpart, it is notable for the numerous temples and follies in
Sanssouci Park. Designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff between
1745 and 1747 to fulfil Frederick's need for a private residence where
he could relax away from the pomp and ceremony of the Berlin court, the
palace is little more than a large single-storey villa—more like the
Château de Marly than Versailles. Containing just ten principal rooms,
it was built on the brow of a terraced hill at the centre of the park.
So great was the influence of Frederick's personal taste in the design
and decoration of the palace that its style is characterised as
"Frederician Rococo", and so personally did he regard the palace that he
conceived it as "a place that would die with him".

During the 19th century, the palace became a residence of
Frederick William IV. He employed the architect Ludwig Persius to
restore and enlarge the palace, while Ferdinand von Arnim was charged
with improving the locality and thus the view from the palace. The town
of Potsdam, with its palaces, was a favourite place of residence for the
German imperial family until the fall of the Hohenzollern dynasty in
1918.

Frederick the Great (1712–86).
After World War II, the palace became a tourist attraction in East
Germany. It was fully maintained with due respect to its historical
importance, and was open to the public. Following German reunification
in 1990, the final wish of Frederick came to pass: his body was finally
returned to his beloved palace and buried in a new tomb overlooking the
gardens he had created. Sanssouci and its extensive gardens became a
World Heritage Site in 1990 under the protection of UNESCO;[2] in 1995,
the Foundation for Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin-Brandenburg
was established to care for Sanssouci and the other former imperial
palaces in and around of Berlin. These palaces are now visited by more
than two million people a year from all over the world.

Ethos of Sanssouci

Frederick the Great's sketch for the plan of Sanssouci was the
prototype for the palace (north is at the top). A single enfilade of ten
principal rooms forms the south-facing corps de logis. To the north, two
segmented colonnades form a cour d'honneur. Two flanking service wings
(hidden from view, screened by trees and covered by climbing plants)
provide the necessary but mundane domestic offices.The location and
layout of Sanssouci above a vineyard reflected the pre-Romantic ideal of
harmony between man and nature, in a landscape ordered by human touch.
Winemaking, however, was to take second place to the design of the
palace and pleasure gardens. The hill on which Frederick created his
terrace vineyard was to become the focal point of his demesne, crowned
by the new, but small, palace—"mein Weinberghäuschen" ("my little
vineyard house"), as Frederick called it.[3] With its extensive views of
the countryside in the midst of nature, Frederick wanted to reside there
sans souci (French for "without a care") and to follow his personal and
artistic interests. Hence, the palace was intended for the use of
Frederick and his private guests only during the summer months, from the
end of April to the beginning of October.

Twenty years after his creation of Sanssouci, Frederick built the
New Palace (Neues Palais) in the western part of the park. This far
larger palace was in direct contrast to the relaxed ethos behind
Sanssouci, and displayed Frederick's power and strength to the world, in
the Baroque style. The design of the New Palace was intended to
demonstrate that Prussia's capabilities were undiminished despite its
near defeat in the Seven Years' War.[4] Frederick made no secret of his
intention, even referring to the new construction as his "fanfaronnade"
(his "showing off").[5]

This concept of a grand palace designed to impress has led to the
comparison of the palaces of Potsdam to Versailles,[6] with Sanssouci
being thrust into the role of one of the Trianons. This analogy, though
easy to understand, ignores the original merits of the concept behind
Sanssouci, the palace for which the whole park and setting were created.
Unlike the Trianons, Sanssouci was not an afterthought to escape the
larger palace, for the simple reason that the larger palace did not
exist at the time of Sanssouci's conception. It is true, however, that
Sanssouci was intended to be a private place of retreat rather than
display of power and strength and architectural merit. Unlike the
Trianons, Sanssouci was designed to be a whole unto itself.

Sanssouci is small, with the principal block (or corps de logis)
being a narrow single-storey enfilade of just ten rooms, including a
service passage and staff rooms behind them. Frederick's amateur sketch
of 1745 (illustrated above)[7] demonstrates that his architect, von
Knobelsdorff, was more a draughtsman at Sanssouci than complete
architect. Frederick appears to have accepted no suggestions for
alteration to his plans, refusing von Knobelsdorff's idea that the
palace should have a semi-basement storey, which would not only have
provided service areas closer at hand, but would have put the principal
rooms on a raised piano nobile. This would have given the palace not
only a more commanding presence, but also would have prevented the
problems of dampness to which it has always been prone.[7] However,
Frederick wanted an intimate palace for living: for example, rather than
scaling a large number of steps, he wanted to enter the palace
immediately from the garden. He insisted on a building on the ground
level, of which the pedestal was the hill: in short, this was to be a
private pleasure house. His recurring theme and requirement was for a
house with close connections between its style and free nature. The
principal rooms, lit by tall slender windows, face south over the
vineyard gardens; the north façade is the entrance front, where a
semicircular cour d'honneur was created by two segmented Corinthian
colonnades.

In the park, east of the palace, is the Sanssouci Picture
Gallery, built from 1755 to 1764 under the supervision of the architect
Johann Gottfried Büring. It stands on the site of a former greenhouse,
where Frederick raised tropical fruit. The Picture Gallery is the oldest
extant museum built for a ruler in Germany. Like the palace itself, it
is a long, low building, dominated by a central domed bow of three bays.

Following the death of Frederick a new era began, a visible sign
of which was the change in architectural styles. Neo-Classicism, popular
elsewhere in Europe but ignored by Frederick, now found its way to
Potsdam and Berlin during the reign of the new king Frederick William
II. He ordered the construction of a new palace in the new more
fashionable style, and stayed at Sanssouci only occasionally.

The reception and bedrooms were renovated and completely altered
immediately after Frederick's death. Frederick William von Erdmannsdorff
received the commission for the refurbishment. While Frederick had been
constructing the New Palace in the Baroque style between 1763 and 1769,
Erdmannsdorff, an advocate of the new neo-classical style, had created
Schloss Wörlitz in Wörlitz Park, the first neo-classical palace in
Germany. As a result of his influence, Sanssouci became the first of the
palaces in Potsdam and Berlin to be remodelled with a neo-classical
interior. In 1797, Frederick William II was succeeded by Frederick
William III; he visited Sanssouci even less frequently than did his
father, preferring to spend the summer months in Chateau Paretz or on
the Pfaueninsel in Berlin.

Architecture of Sanssouci

It was no coincidence that Frederick selected the Rococo style of
architecture for Sanssouci. The light, almost whimsical style then in
vogue exactly suited the light-hearted uses for which he required this
retreat. The Rococo style of art emerged in France in the early 18th
century as a continuation of the Baroque style, but in contrast with the
heavier themes and darker colours of the Baroque, the Rococo was
characterized by an opulence, grace, playfulness, and lightness. Rococo
motifs focused on the carefree aristocratic life and on light-hearted
romance, rather than on heroic battles and religious figures: they also
revolve heavily around natural and exterior settings; this again suited
Frederick’s ideal of nature and design being in complete harmony. The
palace was completed much as Frederick had envisaged in his preliminary
sketches (see illustration above)

The palace has a single-storey principal block with two flanking
side wings. The building occupies almost the entire upper terrace. The
potential monotony of the façade is broken by a central bow, its dome
rising above the hipped roof, with the name of the palace on it in
gilded bronze letters. The secondary side wings on the garden front are
screened by two symmetrical rows of trees each terminating in
free-standing trellised gazebos, richly decorated with gilded ornaments.

The garden front of the palace is decorated by carved figures of
Atlas and Caryatids; grouped in pairs between the windows, these appear
to support the balustrade above. Executed in sandstone, these figures of
both sexes represent Bacchants, the companions of the wine god Bacchus,
and originate from the workshop of the sculptor Friedrich Christian
Glume.[8] The same workshop created the vases on the balustrade, and the
groups of cherubs above the windows of the dome.

By contrast, the north entrance façade is more restrained.
Segmented colonnades of 88 Corinthian columns—two deep—curve outwards
from the palace building to enclose the semicircular cour d'honneur. As
on the south side, a balustrade with sandstone vases decorates the roof
of the main corps de logis.

Flanking the corps de logis are two secondary wings, providing
the large service accommodation and domestic offices necessary to serve
an 18th-century monarch, even when in retreat from the world. In
Frederick's time, these single-storey wings were covered with foliage to
screen their mundane purpose. The eastern wing housed the secretaries',
gardeners' and servants' rooms, while the west wing held the palace
kitchen, stables and a remise (coach house).

Frederich regularly occupied the palace each summer throughout
his lifetime, but after his death in 1786 it remained mostly unoccupied
and neglected until the mid-19th century. In 1840, 100 years after
Frederick's accession to the throne, his grand nephew Frederick William
IV and his wife moved into the guest rooms. The royal couple retained
the existing furniture and replaced missing pieces with furniture from
Frederick's time. The room in which Frederick had died was intended to
be restored to its original state, but this plan was never executed
because of a lack of authentic documents and plans. However, the
armchair in which Frederick had died was returned to the palace in 1843.

Frederick William IV, a draftsman interested in both architecture
and landscape gardening, transformed the palace from the retreat of his
reclusive great uncle into a fully functioning and fashionable country
house. The small service wings were enlarged between 1840 and 1842. This
was necessary because, while Frederick philosophised and played music at
Sanssouci, he liked to live modestly without splendour. As he aged, his
modesty developed into miserliness. He would not permit repairs to the
outer façade and allowed them in the rooms only with great reluctance.
This was ascribed to his wish that Sanssouci should only last his
lifetime.[9]

The two service wings, virtually hidden from sight by foliage in
the time of Frederick the Great, were remodelled in the 19th century by
Frederick William IV, who transformed the palace into a more
conventional royal residence for family and court use.The additions
included a mezzanine floor to both wings. The kitchen was moved into the
east wing. Frederick the Great's small wine cellar was enlarged to
provide ample store rooms for the enlarged household, while the new
upper floor provided staff bedrooms.

The west wing became known as "The Ladies' Wing", providing
accommodation for ladies-in-waiting and guests. This was a common
arrangement in mid-19th-century households, which often had a
corresponding "Bachelor's Wing" for unmarried male guests and members of
the household. The rooms were decorated with intricate boiseries,
panelling and tapestries. This new accommodation for ladies was vital:
entertaining at Sanssouci was minimal during the reign of Frederick the
Great, and it is known that women were never entertained there, so there
were no facilities for them.[7] Frederick had married Elisabeth
Christine von Braunschweig-Bevern in 1733, but separated from his wife
after his accession to the throne in 1740. The Queen resided alone at
Schloss Schönhausen in Berlin after the separation, and Frederick
preferred Sanssouci to be "sans femmes" (without women).[10]

Interior of the palace

"The Flute Concert of Sanssouci" by von Menzel, 1852, depicts
Frederick the Great playing the flute in his music room at Sanssouci.
In the Baroque tradition, the principal rooms (including the bedrooms)
are all on the ground floor piano nobile—by Frederick's choice. In the
case of Sanssouci, this is also the only floor: while the secondary
wings have upper floors, the corps de logis occupied by the King does
not. Comfort was also a priority in the layout of the rooms. The palace
continues the sentiments of the contemporary French architectural
theory: the Apartment double ideals of courtly comfort. This system
requires two rows of rooms, one behind the other. The main rooms face
the garden, by and large looking south, while the servants' quarters in
the row behind are on the north side of the building. An Apartment
double thus consists of a main room and a servant's chamber added on.
Doors connect the apartments with each other. They are arranged as an
"enfilade", so that the entire indoor length of the palace can be
assessed at a glance.

Frederick sketched his requirements for decoration and layout,
and these sketches were interpreted by artists such as Johann August
Nahl, the Hoppenhaupt brothers, the Spindler brothers and Johann
Melchior Kambly, who all not only created works of art, but decorated
the rooms in the Rococo style. While Frederick cared little about
etiquette and fashion, he also wanted to be surrounded by beautiful
objects and works of art. He arranged his private apartments according
to his personal taste and needs, often ignoring the current trends and
fashions. These "self-compositions" in Rococo art led to the term
"Frederician Rococo".[11]

The principal entrance area, consisting of two halls, the
"Entrance Hall" and the "Marble Hall", is at the centre, thus providing
common rooms for the assembly of guests and the court, while the
principal rooms flanking the Marble Hall become progressively more
intimate and private, in the tradition of the Baroque concept of state
rooms. Thus, the Marble Hall was the principal reception room beneath
the central dome. Five guest rooms adjoined the Marble Hall to the west,
while the King's apartments lay to the east - an audience room, music
room, study, bedroom, library, and a long gallery on the north side.

The palace is generally entered through the Entrance Hall, where
the restrained form of the classical external colonnade was continued
into the interior. The walls of the rectangular room were subdivided by
ten pairs of Corinthian columns made of white stucco marble with gilded
capitals. Three overdoor reliefs with themes from the myth of Bacchus
reflected the vineyard theme created outside. Georg Franz Ebenhech was
responsible for gilded stucco works. The strict classical elegance was
relieved by a painted ceiling executed by the Swedish painter Johann
Harper, depicting the goddess Flora with her acolytes, throwing flowers
down from the sky.

Die Tafelrunde by Adolph von Menzel. The central, domed, "Marble
Hall" is the principal reception room of the palace. On the left side,
in the purple coat, sits Voltaire, the other guests are members of the
Prussian Academy of SciencesThe Marble Hall, as the principal reception
room, was the setting for celebrations in the palace, decorated with
gilded ornamentation, its dome crowned by a cupola. As in the vestibule,
selected marble from Carrara and Silesia was used for the paired
columns, and the floor was of Italian marble intarsia. Two niches held
sculptures by the French sculptor François Gaspard Adam: Venus Urania,
the goddess of free nature and life, and Apollo, the god of the arts,
established the iconography of Sanssouci as a place of art and nature.

The adjoining room served as both an audience room and the Dining
Room. It is decorated with paintings by French 18th-century artists,
including Jean-Baptiste Pater, Jean François de Troy, Pierre Jacques
Cazes, Louis de Silvestre, and Antoine Watteau. However, here, as in the
majority of the rooms, the carved putti, flowers and books on the
overdoor reliefs were the work of Glume, and the ceiling paintings
emphasise the rococo spirit of the palace. This exuberant form of
ornamentation of rococo, Rocaille, was used in abundance on the walls
and ceiling in the music room. Much of the work was by the sculptor and
decorator Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt (the elder). A 1746 fortepiano by
Gottfried Silbermann which once belonged to Frederick the Great remains
as a nostalgic reminder of the room's original purpose.

The King's study and bedroom, remodelled after Frederick's death
by Frederick William von Erdmannsdorff in 1786, it is now in direct
contrast to the rococo rooms. Here, the clean and plain lines of
classicism now rule. However, Frederick's desk and the armchair in which
he died in were returned to the room in the middle of the 19th century.
Portraits and once missing pieces of furniture from the Frederick's time
have also since been replaced.

The circular library deviated from the spatial structure of
French palace architecture. The room is almost hidden, accessed through
a narrow passageway from the bedroom, underlining its private character.
Cedarwood was used to panel the walls and for the alcoved bookcases. The
harmonious shades of brown augmented with rich gold-coloured Rocaille
ornaments were intended to create a peaceful mood.

The bookcases contained approximately 2,100 volumes of Greek and
Roman writings and historiographies and also a collection of French
literature of the 17th and 18th centuries with a heavy emphasis on the
works of Voltaire. The books were bound in brown or red goat leather and
richly gilded.

The north facing gallery overlooked the forecourt. Here, again,
Frederick deviated from French room design, which would have placed
service rooms in this location. Recessed into the inner wall of this
long room were niches containing marble sculptures of Greco-Roman
deities. Five windows alternating with pier glasses on the outer wall
reflect the paintings by Nicolas Lancret, Jean-Baptiste Pater and
Antoine Watteau hung between the niches opposite.

To the west were the guest rooms in which were lodged those
friends of the King considered intimate enough to be invited to this
most private of his palaces. Two of Frederick's visitors were
sufficiently distinguished and frequent that the rooms they occupied
were named after them. The Rothenburg room is named after Count von
Rothenburg, who inhabited his circular room until his death in 1751.
This room balances the palace architecturally with the library. The
Voltaire Room was frequently occupied by the philosopher during his stay
in Potsdam between 1750 and 1753.[12] The Voltaire Room was remarkable
for its decoration, which gave it its the alternative name of the
"Flower Room". On a yellow lacquered wall panel were superimposed,
colourful, richly adorned wood carvings. Apes, parrots, cranes, storks,
fruits, flowers, garlands gave the room a cheerful and natural
character. Johann Christian Hoppenhaupt (the younger) designed the room
between 1752 and 1753 from sketches made by Frederick.

The terraced gardens

The terrace gardens, looking down from the palace, towards the
park.The panoramic vista of the garden of Sanssouci is the result of
Frederick the Great's decision to create a terraced vineyard on the
south slope of the hills of Bornstedt. The area had previously been
wooded but the trees were felled during the reign of the "soldier-king"
Frederick William I to allow the city of Potsdam to expand.

On 10 August 1744, Frederick ordered the bare hillside to be
transformed into terraced vineyards. Three wide terraces were created,
with convex centres to maximise the sun light (see plan). On the
partitions of the supporting walls, the brickwork is pierced by 168
glazed niches. Trellised vines from Portugal, Italy, France, and also
from nearby Neuruppin, were planted against the brickwork, while figs
grew in the niches. The individual parts of the terrace were further
divided by strips of lawn, on which were planted yew trees. Low box
hedging surrounded trellised fruit, making a circular ornamental
parterre. In the middle of this "wheel", 120 steps (now 132) led
downward further dividing the terraces into six.

A trellised gazebo at Sanssouci.
Below the hill, a Baroque ornamental garden, modelled on the parterre at
Versailles, was constructed in 1745. The Great Fountain was built at the
centre of this garden in 1748. Frederick never saw the fountain playing
because the engineers employed in the construction had little
understanding of the hydraulics involved. From 1750, marble statues were
placed around the basin of the fountain. This again was a feature copied
from Versailles: figures of Venus, Mercury, Apollo, Diana, Juno,
Jupiter, Mars and Minerva, as well as allegorical portrayals of the four
elements Fire, Water, Air and Earth. Venus and Mercury, the works of the
sculptor Jean Baptiste Pigalle, and two groups of hunters, allegories of
the elements (wind and water) by Lambert Sigisbert Adam, were presented
by Versailles's owner, the French King Louis XV. The remaining figures
came from the workshop of François Gaspard Adam, a renowned sculptor in
Berlin. By 1764, the French Rondel, as it came to be known, was
completed.

Nearby was a kitchen garden, which Frederick William I had laid
out sometime prior to 1715. The soldier-king jokingly gave this simple
garden the name "My Marly",[13] in reference to the very similar garden
at the summer residence of the Louis XIV in Marly-le-Roi.

In his plans for the grounds, Frederick attached great importance
on the combination of both an ornamental and a practical garden, thus
demonstrating his belief that art and nature should be united.

The Park

The Temple of Friendship: constructed south of the main avenue
from 1768 to 1770 by Carl von Gontard in memory of Frederick the Great's
favourite sister, Margravine Wilhelmine of Bayreuth. The building
complements the Antique Temple, which lies due north of the alley.
Following the terracing of the vineyard and the completion of the
palace, Frederick turned his attention to the landscaping of the greater
vicinity of the palace and thus began the creation of Sanssouci Park. In
his organisation of the park, Frederick continued what he had begun in
Neuruppin and Rheinsberg.[14] A straight main avenue was laid out,
ultimately 2.5 km long, beginning in the east at the 1748 obelisk and
extended over the years to the New Palace, which marks its western end.

Continuing the horticultural theme of the terraced gardens, 3,000
fruit trees were planted in the park, and greenhouses and nurseries laid
out, producing oranges, melons, peaches and bananas. Statuary and
obelisks were also erected, with representations of the goddesses Flora
and Pomona. Frederick had several temples and follies erected in the
same rococo style as the palace itself. Some were small houses which
compensated for the lack of reception rooms in the palace itself.

The Chinese House, designed by Johnn Gottfried Büring between
1755 and 1764; a pavilion in the Chinoiserie style: a mixture of rococo
elements coupled with Oriental architecture.Frederick invested heavily
in a vain attempt to introduce a fountain system in Sanssouci Park,
attempting to emulate the other great Baroque gardens of Europe.
Hydraulics at this stage were still in their infancy, and despite the
building of pumping houses and reservoirs, the fountains at Sanssouci
remained silent and still for the next 100 years. The invention of the
steam power solved the problems a century later, and thus the reservoir
finally fulfilled its purpose.[15] From around 1842, the Prussian Royal
family were finally able to marvel at such features as the Great
Fountain below the vineyard terraces, shooting jets of water to a height
of 38 metres. The pumping station itself became another garden pavilion,
disguised as Turkish Mosque, with its chimney becoming a minaret.

The park was expanded under Frederick William III, and later
under his son Frederick William IV. The architects Karl Friedrich
Schinkel and Ludwig Persius built Charlottenhof Palace in the park on
the site of a former farm house, and Peter Joseph Lenné was commissioned
with the garden design. Broad meadows created visual avenues between
Charlottenhof, the Roman Baths and the New Palace, and incorporated the
follies such as the Temple of Friendship of Frederick the Great.

Sanssouci in modern times

The Dragon House was constructed between 1770 and 1772 in the
Chinoiserie style on the northern edge of Sanssouci Park.
After the First World War, and despite the end of the German monarchy,
the palace remained in the possession of the Hohenzollern dynasty. It
eventually came under the protection of the Prussian "Verwaltung der
Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten" (Administration of National Palaces
and Gardens) on April 1, 1927.[16]

When air raids on Berlin began in the Second World War, the most
notable works of art of the former imperial palaces were transferred for
safety to Rheinsberg (Brandenburg) and Bernterode im Eichsfeld
(Thüringen). The structure of the palace remained unscathed despite
fierce fighting in the vicinity in 1945, but the ancient windmill,
retained in the park by Frederick to add rustic charm, was
destroyed.[17]

Following the end of the war, most of the items that had been
moved to Rheinsberg were transferred as booty to the Soviet Union; only
a small part was returned to the palace in 1958. The artistic pieces
from Bernterode found by American soldiers were first shipped to
Wiesbaden to the "Central Art Collecting Point" and in 1957 went to
Charlottenburg palace in West Berlin.

Compared to many similar buildings, the palace fared well during
almost 50 years under Communist jurisdiction in East Germany. The Church
of St. Saviour in Sacrow and the centre of Potsdam were neglected, and
some of the historic centre of Potsdam was demolished. The Berliner
Stadtschloss (Berlin City Palace), containing architectural work by
Schinkel, von Erdmannsdorff and von Knobelsdorff was demolished in 1950.
Sanssouci survived intact, and in 1986 was even used a motif on the 5
DDM banknote; it was the East German government that endeavoured to have
Sanssouci placed on the list of World Heritage Sites. This was achieved
in 1990 with the following citation:

Sanssouci around 1900; this timeless view remains unchanged.

The palace and park of Sanssouci, often described as the "Prussian
Versailles", are a synthesis of the artistic movements of the 18th
Century in the cities and courts of Europe. That ensemble is a unique
example of the architectural creations and landscape design against the
backdrop of the intellectual background of monarchic ideas of the
state.[6]

Following the reunification of Germany, the library of Frederick
was returned in 1992 to its former home at Sanssouci. Thirty-six oil
paintings followed between 1993 and 1995. In 1995, the Foundation of
Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin-Brandenburg was formed. The
organization's job is to administer and care for Sanssouci and the other
former imperial palaces in Berlin and Brandenburg that are visited by
over two million visitors annually from all over the world.